


What they are, yet I know not

by inanhourofdreaming



Series: Here shall I [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-05
Updated: 2012-08-05
Packaged: 2017-11-11 12:15:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/478459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inanhourofdreaming/pseuds/inanhourofdreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Derek never expected to be back here.</i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>In which Derek and Stiles meet and events are set into motion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What they are, yet I know not

Derek never expected to be back here.

He’s been running from his mistakes for so long it’s beginning to feel like the only home he has left is the driver’s seat of his car. And Laura. God, _Laura_.

She’d been looking into the fire and he should never have let her do it on her own. She may have been the alpha but she was young, they were both too young, and she shouldn’t have done it alone. And now his past, his stupid, _stupid_ mistakes had finally caught up with them and now she’s gone, too. They’re all gone.

What the hell is he supposed to _do_ now?

He buries her. Of course he does. A proper burial. He doesn’t use gloves as he wraps what remains of her body in wolfsbane, lets it burn his hands as he twists it around her. He should be punished for this. He deserves worse.

He needs to find who did this to her. All he can do now is try to give her justice. There’s another alpha out there, now, and he doesn’t know what that means.

 

 

And then there’s the kid. The one who’d been standing vigil over Laura last night when he’d found her. What was left of her.

The scent of the alpha had been strong; it must have just left before Derek arrived. He should’ve taken off after it right away but he hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to leave Laura there. The kid had been young, a teenager. Too young to have known Laura, so what had he been doing there? Derek had waited in the shadows and watched. The kid had looked too upset to be involved and he’d walked towards Laura’s body like he’d wanted to help her even though she was clearly past help; it’d been the only thing that’d stopped Derek from slamming him against a tree and demanding answers.

The kid had lifted his head suddenly, staring off in the direction where Derek knew the police were combing the forest. He’d thought they were too far to be heard by a human ear but he’s never been quite sure what the practical limits of human senses are. The kid had mumbled under his breath for a moment, nothing comprehensible to Derek, and then taken off after one last glance at Laura.

Derek hadn’t followed, just took Laura and left. He would have to deal with the rest of it later.

 

 

So now here he is, trying to catch the scent of the alpha, ignoring the way his palms are itching and peeling from the wolfsbane. He’s heading towards the clearing when he catches the fresh scent of the kid from last night. He’s not alone now, two heartbeats, and Derek speeds up a little. Not the alpha, definitely not, but these two might know something about Laura and what she was doing.

The new one, the stranger, catches sight of him first and nudges his friend. He looks terrified.

“Stiles,” he’s saying. The kid’s name, maybe? Kid’s not responding, though, has his eyes closed like he’s in some kind of trance.

“ _Stiles,”_ the kid’s friend says again, and shoves him.

“ _What_ ,” the kid, Stiles, snaps back. And then he looks up and spots Derek.

The minute he makes eye contact with Stiles something in Derek rises up. This kid is _different_ somehow. He’s not a wolf but he’s not entirely human either. Stiles’ jaw is dropped and he’s staring at Derek---no, not really at Derek, at the space _around_ Derek---like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. Derek wants to trust him all of the sudden. Instead, he snaps. Derek’s not really good at trust anymore.

“What are you doing here? This is private property, you’re trespassing.”

Stiles’ mouth snaps shut and then he appears to shake himself out of whatever trance he was in. Derek’s feelings of _different_ fade a bit and he allows himself to relax slightly. He’s not sure what to do with this situation yet, but the kid is acting normal now and that’s something.

“Oh, sorry, man, Scott here just, uh, dropped his inhaler when we were here the other day practicing for lacrosse and we were just hoping we could find it! Y’know, nothing like, illegal or whatever. Which I would never do, because the _Sheriff_ _is my dad_ ,” he finishes, like Derek’s going to try to murder them right on the spot otherwise. He wouldn’t, of course, but it does mean he’s going to have to be careful how he gets information out of this kid.

Stiles moves constantly when he speaks. He doesn’t look clumsy, exactly, just like his body can’t quite contain everything that’s going on inside it and so it comes out in sprawling arm motions and constant shifts in his central balance. Derek can’t help but focus on him; he’s a wolf as much as he’s a human most days and the quick stops and starts of motion still translate into his mind as prey.

The kid’s friend---Scott, apparently---has reached into his pocket and grabbed something. He bends quickly and then jumps up again, obviously pretending to have picked up what looks like an inhaler.

“Oh, look, found it! Awesome! So we can go now!” Scott says, voice high and nervous.

“Excellent! Great idea, Scott, good job,” Stiles says like some kind of overenthusiastic kindergarten teacher. “So we’ll just be…going, then.”

He’s still looking at Derek, though, and not moving, so Derek reaches his hand out in a “go right ahead” motion. Except now the kid is staring at his hand instead of his face. His hand, which is still red and peeling from the wolfsbane. Derek pulls it back quickly but it’s too late.

Stiles is looking strange again, his eyes a little glazed looking as he stares at Derek’s withdrawn hand, and he’s radiating…something, Derek doesn’t know what. And then he’s approaching, just walking up to Derek like he’s not some strange guy he just met in the woods where they’re both just barely pretending there hasn’t been a murder. Derek’s whole body tenses up, straightens, prepares for a fight, but he doesn’t back away.

Stiles reaches for his hand. Scott appears to be panicking in the background, hissing _Stiles what are you doing_ , but Derek is too focused on Stiles to care and Stiles doesn’t appear to even hear his friend.

Stiles’ hand is gentle when he pulls Derek’s hand into his own and Derek has no idea why he’s allowing this. The kid is just looking at his hand, eyes narrowed in what might be concern. Then he brushes his thumbs across Derek’s palm and it’s like cool water and electricity at the same time. Derek lets out a huff of air at the sensation but he still isn’t pulling back. Stiles does this several times, over his palm again and then his fingers. Then he drops the hand and reaches for the other. Derek lets him.

It’s a minute maybe, altogether. Possibly less. Derek’s eyes don’t leave Stiles as he repeats the process with the other hand. There’s too much energy building up here to look anywhere else. When he’s done, Derek’s hands are clear, the skin smooth and unblemished. Stiles nods his head slightly to himself in satisfaction before his eyes clear.

The speed with which Stiles face goes from satisfied to panicked as he appears to realize what he’s done is impressive, his skin flushing red and then going pale in the course of a few seconds. He drops Derek’s hand like it’s on fire and stumbles backwards towards Scott.

“Right! Right. Going. Now. That way,” he says, pointing one way and then grabbing Scott and practically running off in the opposite direction. Derek stares after them as they stumble off.

“Dude, what the _hell_ was that,” he hears Scott whispering emphatically when he thinks they’re too far for him to hear.

“Oh my god, I don’t even know,” Stiles is whispering back, and he sounds as unsettled as Derek feels.

“You told him my _name_ , Stiles, what if he murders us!” Scott says. 

Derek snaps out of his daze and shakes his head, looking at his hands again and then off in the direction Stiles and Scott went. He frowns. He doesn’t know what’s going on here yet, but he’s got questions, and now he’s maybe got a lead. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out about this kid. _Stiles,_ he thinks, _the sheriff’s son._


End file.
